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Monday, March 29, 2010

Review; Bleeding Violet

Attention, this ones a bit of a rambler. I appolize for all the "negative" reviews lately, but I'm going to continue speeking my mind because I know I like an honest review :) 



Author; Dia Reeves

Review;  2/5

Release Date; January 5th 2010

Product Description from Goodreads

Love can be a dangerous thing....
Hanna simply wants to be loved. With a head plagued by hallucinations, a medicine cabinet full of pills, and a closet stuffed with frilly, violet dresses, Hanna's tired of being the outcast, the weird girl, the freak. So she runs away to Portero, Texas in search of a new home.
But Portero is a stranger town than Hanna expects. As she tries to make a place for herself, she discovers dark secrets that would terrify any normal soul. Good thing for Hanna, she's far from normal. As this crazy girl meets an even crazier town, only two things are certain: Anything can happen and no one is safe.

Review;

            Wow. What an odd, odd, read.

Odd, isn’t necessarily a bad thing, sometimes it is refreshing to read “odd” books, in fact I would probably classify some of my favorite books as “odd”. However, Bleeding Violet, definitely was not my kind of book.

Once you get pass the oddity of the world Hanna lives in, and I’m not talking about her manic depression and hallucinations, but more of the mindset she lives in. Her mother is quite… different; she doesn’t want Hanna, and hits her and constantly tells her to leave, but in Hanna’s mind she just needs to be bashed over the head with a lamp (which she does by the way) and she’ll come around. 

Another thing I didn’t like was the way this book would casually mention dark subjects and make them light, such as; drugs, ditching school, suicide, murder, prostitution, and the thing I was most shocked with in a YA book was the way the author portrayed the loose morals of Hanna towards sex.  Now I am not generally opposed to sex in YA novels if it is tastefully done and not overly mentioned, but that is not the case in this book. Hanna, who readers learn lost her virginity when she was 14 to a stranger in a sauna, views sex as a way to get protection and become popular in her new town, and the most shocking thing is her “mother” not only condones it but also encourages it!  I can understand this in a more “adult” book, after all we expect that in books geared at an older audience, but I don’t like seeing that in a book aimed for 13 year olds and up. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think sex should be taught so loosely to impressionable teens. Heck I think I’m still impressionable at 20 and it shocked me!!!

If I get passed the whole sex issue, I had no connections with the characters. I though Hanna was a little well…. Strange. And it wasn’t because of her mental state but more because of her morals and ideals, which I know, were probably a result of her sanity but still I couldn’t connect. I even hated the main guy, Wyatt. Usually  authors writes most of the love interests to be totally absorbed in the main character and be an at times slightly misogynistic, tough-guys, Reeves wrote Wyatt as being a big demon hunter and while it seemed he truly liked Hanna, whenever his ex girlfriend was around he would make goo-goo eyes at her. WHAT THE HECK?! As my mother always said; “no one buys the cow, when they get the milk for free”.

I must admit, I couldn’t finish this book. I had about 100 pages left and decided I just couldn’t do it. This saddens me because I hate feeling regretful at buying a book, and even worse feeling like I wasted my time. However since I never finished maybe the book ends off with a bang making the beginning and middle worth it?






7 comments:

  1. It's good that you pointed out your concerns about this book. I didn't read the book, but from the way you described it, it felt like a cliched troubled teens life. Not that I don't believe it happens, but it depends on how real the author makes it. And in some YA books I've read, it doesn't seem real. Others pull it off successfully.

    Great review.

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  2. Oh wow, I had actually been looking forward to reading this book, dying for it to come out here in S.A. so that I could buy myself a copy ... bbbut ... it actually sounds pretty awful :S

    Thanks for the great and honest review! Until now, I'd only heard fantastic things about Bleeding Violet.

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  3. *raises hand* I'm an impressionable 20something, too!

    Actually Sarah, I think I'm changing my views a little bit - I guess I don't mind sex in books if it's tastefully done and the characters love each other and all that jazz - certainly not casual and certainly not permissive...pretty much like an echo of your thoughts in this review! I completely agree with you and what's more, I love the simple, articulate way you express your thoughts. I wish I could do that!!

    So thanks for such a great, honest review. It's nice to know that not everybody jumps on the bandwagon. I think I'll take your advice and skip this one after all :D

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  4. I actually really liked the book because it was so weird. I understand your reasons for not liking it though. I think this is really a hit or miss book.

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  5. It is unfortunate when a book fails to live up to expectations.. :(

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  6. I had hoped to read this one too, but after reading one review saying how odd it was, I'm glad I moved on. Darn, I hate when that happens but TY for the honest review :)

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  7. I couldn't agree more. This book was odd!

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